so thanks to the grit and recyience and hard work of the american people, and some good policies, we've been able to clear away the rubble of the financial crisis. we're laying the foundation for an economy that works for everybody. but i'll bet a lot of families in scranton will tell you, we're not yet where we need to be. we've got a lot more work to do. like i said, even before the crisis hit, we were living through a decade where almost all the productivity gains, all the benefits of technology were accruing at the very top. and the average family had seen their incomes and wages flat or actually go down a little bit. most families were working harder and harder just to get by. costs of everything elsewhere going up. but your wages and your incomes weren't going up. so reversing that trend,

returning to the days when if you're willing to work hard you can succeed, that should be washington's highest priority. that should be washington's highest priority. that's joe's highest priority. that's bob casey's highest priority. that's my highest priority. that's what we should be focused on every single day. but we do have a problem, which is we've got some of our friends down in washington who, and you know, it's not all republicans. but there's a strong faction. who instead of focusing on what's helping middle class families succeed, they're spending time arguing about whether or not we should be paying the bills for things we already spend money on.

they're threatening to shut down the government and have another financial crisis unless, for example, we get rid of the health care reform that we fought to pass and that's going to provide millions of people health care security for the first time. that won't create jobs. that's not going to help our economy. that doesn't strengthen the middle class. i have not seen a policy coming out of them that would actually help ordinary folks. and we can't afford the usual washington circus of distractions and political posturing and special interests and phony scandals. we can't afford that. we've got too much work to do. we've got to build on the cornerstones of what it means to be middle class in america, a good job with good wages, a good

education, a home of your own, affordable health care, secure retirements, even if you're not rich, more ladders of opportunity for everybody, that's what we should be fighting for. and one of the most important things we can do to restore that sense of upward mobility, the ability to achieve the american dream, the idea that if you can make it if you try, one of the most important things we can do is make sure every child is getting a good education. and the students who are studying here, they understand that. that's why they've made sacrifices. that's why their family are making sacrifices. you understand that if the face of global competition, when the

germans and the chinese and the indians are all putting more money into education and putting more money into research and -- that we can't just stand pat. we can't stand by and do nothing. you understand that a great education's more important than ever. and you don't have to take my word for it. look, the data is clear. if you get some kind you have higher education, whether its a two-year degree, a four-year degree, a technical college, you're more likely to have a job. you're more likely to see your income going up. more than ever before, some form of higher education is the surest path into the middle class. and the surest path that you stay there. now, here's the challenge. the soaring cost of higher

education's become an increasingly burden and barrier for too many young people. college has never been more necessary but it's never been more expensive. it's true. over the past -- listen to this statistic because -- because this is important. over the past three decades, past 30 years, the average tuition at a public four-year college has risen by more than 250%. so it didn't just double. it went up 250%. the typical family income has only gone up 16%. so you do the math. i'm not a math major but there are probably some good math people here. if you've got the cost of college going up like this and

incomes going up like that, you start getting that bigger and bigger gap, and that means it's harder and harder for young people to afford college. and meanwhile, states have been cutting back on their higher education budgets. and let's face it, here in pennsylvania, there have been brutal cuts to not just higher education but education generally. not enough colleges have been able to cut back on their costs, so what happens -- what happens if costs are going up, incomes are flat, and the state actually reduces its support for higher education? well, what you end up with is students had to pick up the tab. families had to pick up the tab.

and taxpayers have to pick up the tab in the form of more and more financial assistance. and that's what's happened. the average student who borrows for college now graduates owing more than $26,000. but a lot of folks will owe a lot more than that. i get letters from people who have $100,000 worth of debt. i've got -- young people have got $120,000 worth of debt. and they may be working as teachers. they may be doing really important work. they may be working as researchers. but they can't pay off that kind of debt. so what's ending up happening is students end up facing a choice that they should never have to make. either they say no to college which means that they're going

to be paying the price the rest of their lifetimes for not getting a degree or they go to college but they're taking on so much debt that they're not sure they're ever going to be able to pay it back. and if you know, if you come out with huge debt, what does that mean? it means you can't get a mortgage on a house right away. because you're paying off your debt. you may put off starting a family because you're worried about paying off the debt. if you've got a good idea for starting a business, you're maybe going to put that off because you're still servicing your debt. and that's bad for the entire economy. that's bad for everybody. that's a choice we should not accept. that's not who we are. keep in mind, this is a country that gave my grandfather, when he came back from world war ii the chance to go to college for free on the gi bill.

[ applause ] my mother was able to go to a public university and get the support she needed so she could go to school even though she was raising two kids and had to work part time to do it. michelle and i, we're only where we are today because scholarships and student loans gave us a shot at a great education. and by the way, we did have to borrow a lot of money. i didn't pay off all my student loans until right before i was elected to the u.s. senate. i was in my 40s. i was supposed to be saving more malia and sasha. i was still paying off my loans. so i know a little bit about this. the point is though in the past, we've done what was required to

support the next generation succeeding because we understood if they succeed, then we'll all succeed. but we've kind of lost track of that. so when joe and i came in with the help of bob casey and others, we took some steps to help make student loans more affordable. we changed the system where student loans were going through banks and banks were making billions of dollars. we said let's just give account loans directly to students, save billions of dollars so we can give more help to more students. that's what we did. we set up a consumer watchdog to help students and their families navigate through the financial options, make sure that they don't get taken by shady lenders, and we gave more tools and resources to students and families to finance college and

by the way, young people, if you're still trying to figure out how to finance it, go to stayed aid.gov, student eight.gov and it will give you information you need. we took action to cap loan payments at 10% for a lot of borrowers who were going into public service so that they could responsibly manage their debt. and overall, these things made college more affordable, more accessible for millions of students and families, using tax credits and grants and student loans, all this helped. and then just a few weeks ago, working with bob casey and others we worked to make sure that student loan rates didn't double. and than saves the typical undergraduate more than $1500 for this year's loan. so we've made some progress. but it's not enough.

the system is on a trajectory that is unsustainable because if you keep on seeing the cost of college tuition go up and up and up, then no matter how much money we put in for loans or grants or what have you, it's not going to keep up and it means students are going to be even deeper in debt. what we have to do is to actually reduce the cost. and that means -- that means that state legislatures, state legislatures cannot just keep cutting support for public college and universities. they've got to the prioritize the next generation. it means colleges have to work harder to prevent tuition from going up year after year. our economy cannot afford the

trillion dollars in outstanding student loan debt. we can't price the middle class and everybody working to get into the middle class out of a college education. we're going to have to change how we do business. higher education is not a luxury. it's an economic necessity. and every american should be able to afford it. so -- so yesterday, i announced some new reforms to shake up the system. some will require action from congress. you know, that's always challenging but these are ideas that should have bipartisan support. of course, so should obama care. it's actually a really good idea. it's going to work. yeah. used to be a republican idea.

there was a governor in massachusetts set it up. it's working really well. but some of the reforms we're proposing we can make on our own. we're going to work with colleges to keep costs down. we're going to work with states to make higher education a bigger priority in the budget. and by the way, students, we're going to also ask a little more from you, too, when it comes to you receiving financial aid. because you're going to have responsibilities, as well. and these reforms won't be popular with all the institutions out there because some of them are doing okay with the status quo. even if their students aren't graduating, they're still getting the money. but i'm not concerned with the institutions. i'm concerned with the students. i want the students to get a good deal.

the institutions are there to serve the students. and educate the young people. so my plan comes down to three main goals. number one, i'm directing my administration to come up with a new more useful rating system for colleges. what we're going to do is not just measure -- right now a lot of these rating systems are based on how selective the school is, how expensive the school is. you know, how nice the dorm rooms are. what i want is for us to measure the kind of value they're giving students and their families and are they providing the opportunity that we should be providing. are they helping students from all kinds of backgrounds succeed. are they graduating students at a good rate. are students graduating with manageable debt? do they have strong career potential.

are students getting jobs after they graduate from these places? that's what we want to focus on. so that's information that's useful. that's news you can use. it will help students and parents figure out how much value a college truly offers and then down the road, using these ratings, we're going to work with congress to change how we allocate federal aid for college. because i said this last year and i meant it. colleges that keep their tuition down while providing a high quality education, we want to see their taxpayer support go up. we should not be subsidizing schools that are not getting good results for the young people who attend them.

we've got to do more to reward schools that deliver for students and our future. so that's number one. number two, we're going to encourage more colleges to innovate. try new things. do things that can provide a great education without breaking the bank. so for example, a number of colleges across the country are using online education to save time and pone for their students. or they may be, for example, seeing if you can get credits faster. if you can show competency, if you know your subject matter, it shouldn't matter how many hours in a classroom you work. the question is, do you know the subject. and if you can accelerate it, you should be able to save money doing it. some schools are trying what you're doing here in scranton

and that's creating partnerships between high school and colleges so students in high school can start accruing some credits. they can get a jump on their degree. that saves them money. so the bottom line i want to see schools and states get in the game. try new things. figure out how to maintain high quality while reducing costs. and we'll provide incentives to states to do that. then the third thing, even if we control costs, some of you are still going to have debt once you graduate. that's okay. you know, i had debt. joe had debt. not all of us, you know, have parents who no matter how much they love us and work hard can afford to pay for all of our college. but the question is, can you manage it and afford it responsibly. people don't want to take out

debt, but they're making a good investment. education is something that will pay off in time. but it's got to be managed. i don't want debt to keep you from getting the job you want or getting your first home. that's why we recapped college for a lot of students. we call it pay as you earn. right? so far, it's helping about 2.5 million students. but there are a lot of students both current and former students who aren't eligible. so we want to work with congress to fix that and make more students eligible for it and too many students don't know that the program exists. so we're going to launch a campaign to help borrowers learn more about their options because we should allow every student the chance to pay back their loans in a way that doesn't 0 stop them from becoming a

teacher or becoming a nurse who's working in a needy community. you know, you may have great skills. you may choose a profession that doesn't pay a lot of money. you should be able to do that. and you're giving back to the community. we should help you do it. so if we do these three things, increase value, encourage innovation, help people manage their debt after graduation, then we'll help more students afford college, we'll help more students graduate from college. we'll help more students keep their debt low and repay it faster. we can do that. there you go. now, this is going to take a lot of work. but the people of scranton, the

people of krascranton i think k something about hard work. the american people know something about hard work. so just because something's hard doesn't mean that we don't do it. we can get this done. we can get college more affordable. we can have the best trained workforce in the world if we keep on moving forward and joe are going to keep pushing for a better bargain for the middle class, a better bargain for the next generation and to need god bless you! god bless the united states of america. ♪ >> president obama wrapping up his remarks at lackawanna college in scranton, pennsylvania. he talked about making higher education more affordable. there by vice president joe biden. right now, we're joined by politico's jonathan allen and sam stichbt "huffington post."

this is for the administration to focus on education and moving forward. how did he do? is. fairly well. i think part of the issue here is we're about to enter a season debates, debt ceiling fights will dominate the political landscape and what the president and the administration is trying sort of preframe the debate. they're talking about student debt while republicans on capitol hill are talking about the abstract debt relating to pocketbook issues while the care. right. there's always the possibility off of this by domestic. this is something they've tried do before and it presets the and october. >> jonathan, what's the likelihood this rating system

that the president has put forward with regard to colleges get support in the congress? >> i think most of what the gotten support in the congress. what you would see is the winners pitted against the losers. you've got colleges in congressional districts in states all across the country. think how many colleges there are that members in congress have a stake in that. it doesn't make it impossible but certainly makes it difficult. >> sam, why scranton? if i'm in the political office in the white house and deciding there's going to be this bus tour, why are we take making the geographical selections that were just made in this case? >> first of all, it's blue collar. they have the biden roots. moderate republicans he wants to win over that are pretty critical in the weeks ahead. again, this is part of a evolving theme for the white house where they want to talk about, you know, lunch pail blue collar issues. they want to reduce the budget

conversation from something that's abstract and numerical into something that relates to everyday families. scranton sort of symbolizeds that for a lot of pol tigs an people. >> gentlemen, thank you. thank you jonathan allen. sam stein. up next, the latest iteration of the obama derangement syndrome by the gop. this is "hardball," the place for politics. every day we're working to be an even better company - and to keep our commitments. and we've made a big commitment to america. bp supports nearly 250,000 jobs here. through all of our energy operations, we invest more in the u.s. than any other place in the world. in fact, we've invested over $55 billion here in the last five years - making bp america's largest energy investor. our commitment has never been stronger. peoi go to angie's listt for all kinds of reasons. to gauge whether or not the projects will be done in a timely fashion and within budget. angie's list members can tell you which provider is the best in town.

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welcome back to "hardball." now to the republicans' obama derangement syndrome. it's a syndrome that "hardball" has chronicled going all the way back before the president was elected. a continuing effort to delegitimate mize this preds whether it be his eligibility to be president as questioned by the birthers or the recent talk of impeaching him. sarah palin as a vice presidential candidate in 2008 tried to delegitimate mize candidate obama by association. >> our opponent is someone who sees america as imperfect enough to pal around with terrorists who targeted their own country.

>> then in 2010, newt gingrich who was to mount hiswn run for president in 2012 cited an article that posited president obama had a kenyan anti-colonial world view calling it "the most profound insight i've read in the last six years about barack obama." gingrich said "what if obama is so outside our comprehension that only if you understand kenyan anti-colonial behavior can you begin to piece together his actions? that's the most accurate predictive model for his behavior." despite all these questions about his legitimacy, president obama then had the audacity to win again with 65 million american voters choosinging him over mitt romney for the victory. now with the president presiding in his second term, a chorus of republicans is calling for impeachment and a surprising member of the chorus sang out at a town hall on wednesday. senator tom coburn, usually a reasonable voice on the right

entertains the idea of impeaching the president. >> what you have to do is you have to establish the criteria that would qualify for proceedings against a president. and that's called impeachment. but you -- but you know, that's not something you take lightly. and you have to use a historical precedent of what that means. you know, i think there's some intended violation of law in this administration. but i also think there's a ton of incompetence. >> i believe that needs to be evaluated and determined but thank goodness it doesn't have to happen in the senate until they brought charges in the house. those are serious things, but we're in a serious time. and so whether -- i don't have the legal background to know if that rises to high crimes and misdemeanors. but i think they're getting

perilously close. barack obama is a personal friend of mine. he became my friend in the senate. but that does not mean i agree in any way with what he's doing or how he's doing it. i, quite frankly, think he's in a difficult position. he's put himself in it. and if he continues, i think we're going to have another constitutional crisis in our country in terms of the presidency. >> is this latest iteration of the obama derangement syndrome as chris calls it? rick tyler is with the strategy group for media a former spokesman for gingrich. robert hoops is a democratic strategist. rick, what makes this significant is a friend of the president. is this a sign that this impeachment talk is going mainstream within the gop? >> i sure hope not. i mean, i don't know what tom coburn is talking about. i would advise gop not to go down this line. in particular, because it's happening in the absence of

ideas and an alternative vision. there's lots of things you can do way short of impeachment to turn around the policy initiatives of the obama administration. yes, there are some constitutional questions of barack obama. it certainly doesn't rise to the impeachment. don't think we need to have tom coburn or any other republican calling for impeachment because the president is impeaching himself, his credibility. since the recovery of 2009, household incomes are down 4.4%, black household incomes are down 11%, hispanic income homes down 4.5%. households led by women are down 7.5%. households are children of more than three children are down 9%. black unemployment is at 40%. >> and i think, rick, it's an all great fodder for a good debate, but -- >> that's what whee have at nbc are conversations. >> on this issue, you go to the constitution for a little clarity on impeachment, article two, section four sis the

president, vice president and all civil officers of the united states shall be removed for and conviction of treason, bribery or other high crimes and misdemeanors. >> this clearly doesn't ridse t that level. >> robert, are they doing the president a favor? and here's the thought process that they inoculate him. there are reasonable concerns and complaints that people can offer. rick hit you with a couple of them. do they inoculate the president when they talk of impeachment? because then when they hear other criticisms, they say it's all a bunch of garbage. >> the magnitude of this folly crowds out reasonable conversation. for democrats in political campaigns, there's a rule when your opponent's in a free fall, get out of the way. but it's different in governing. because right now the republican party is in a free fall. this is the question of impeachment, defunding obama

care has become a litmus test among the party, are you for it or against it, are you with the grass-roots or with the mainstream. as a result, there's no governing partner here in washington for the president. so it's in the short term, it's relatively good politics for the democrats because this turns off independent voters, turns off mainstream voters. but as far as governing when they come back in the fall talking about health care adjustments, immigration reform, talking about jobs and the economy and all those things that rick just listed, it crowds out that. so it's bad for the country and unfortunate. >> i think it comes from a mind-set of all politics being local. this is good strategy in terms of the gop in terms of placating the base that helps you win a primary. it doesn't seem they have their eye on the big pictures of how you win a national election in 2016. >> it doesn't help the republicans. what the republicans need is to cast a very large vision. there's an alternative vision that people can look to and say

i want that. the problem with the affordable health care act is the republicans are not offering an alternative vision. the affordable health care act can't work. it just won't. there's no downward cost pressures. we now tax medical innovation. >> that's not accurate. >> yes, it is. new york state just lowered their premiums 50% with the pools. it's working in massachusetts. there's been nonopportunity to give it a chance to work. >> all the sticks because. >> right. >> i know, because we have this idea, this utopian idea that somehow obama care, after all of the socialist programs have failed over and over again. >> this is the problem. these are now -- >> rick, lets me interrupt you and ask you an additional question. i guess this tells us what we're in stage for for the next three years. i've not a heard a single voice in the leadership of the republican party condemn this sort of talk. if i'm wrong, i'd love it if you could say to me, no, tom coburn

should never have offered the impeachment conversation. is this the way it's going to be till this presidency is over? >> i sure hope not. barack obama will be the president for the next three years. we need to get over it. we need to have an alternative vision so we can capture the majority in the senate, add more republicans to the house. you're only going to do that with a big broad vision that is articulated in a way that people allow do you did. until you do that, an anti-obama even calling it obama care, i try to call it the affordable care act even though that's a misnomer is not helpful. we have to have a big broad vision. this country is in serious trouble and it needs to be fixed. talk of impeachment is not going to help. but we've got to have an alternative vision. there are lots of ideas. the insane thing is we continue to support these positions that are, that, have led to the absolute slowest economic recovery in all of american history. >> thank you. robert hoops, thank you. i wish we had more time. up next, how the right wing is

trying to turn the murder of christopher lane, the australian baseball player in oklahoma, into a racial incident. you're watching "hardball," the place for politics. it starts with something little, like taking a first step. and then another. and another.

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the dow climbed to 46 points. the s&p 500 is up 6 and the nasdaq rose 19 points. shares of microsoft surged 7% after the company announced ceo steve bal mer will retire within 12 months. new home sales plunged over 13% in july. the biggest decline in three years. rising mortgage rates may be to blame. and facebook's stock closed the week above $40 a share for the first time since the company's ipo. that's it from cnbc, first in

business worldwide. now back to "hardball." welcome back to "hardball." the seemingly senseless murder of an australian student in oklahoma has stirred anger on two continents, three teens have been arrested in connection with the death of christopher lane, two have been charged with first-degree murder. one other was charged with accessory to murder. according to police, one of the teens explained motive for the crime this way "we were bored and didn't have anything to do." so we decided to kill somebody. the victim is white and two of the teens allegedly who killed him are black. the police have not said that race is a factor in the shooting. that hasn't stopped some on the right from leaping to that conclusion and even tieing it to the trayvon martin case. here's rush limbaugh earlier this week. >> when you get bored, do you ever think, you know, let's go

chute somebody? that's what these three guys did. in oklahoma. they got board. let's go shoot a white guy. folks, i got to tell you, there's something else about this. this is trayvon martin in reverse only worse. this was nowhere near self-defense. >> jamel booey is a staff writer with the daily beast. earness istook a former congressman everyone oklahoma. i closely monitored these events all this week. i want to take a look how the drudge report played the christopher lane case wednesday morning with a posting that asks, who will obama identify on this one and then another headline which i find misleading particularly in combination with those twos photographs that you can see on the screen. cops, bored black teens kill white baseball player for fun. when you click on the story, at the time, it took you to a melbourne newspaper which said

no such thing. the implication of the one black photograph and one white photograph of the victim side by side and the plural usage of black teens i think was implying that all of the defendants in this case where is african-american when in fact they weren't. and my thought is that -- and there are several instances of this, limbaugh being one of them. on the right individuals taking their cue from drudge all ran with the ball and repeated a story which said this was a racially inspired crime and that all the defendants were african-american. jamel, how did you piece it together and what do you think of my theory that the first domino that fell in terms of the mistruths was the drudge report? >> i'm not sure it began with the drudge report though i think a lot of right wing bloggers took their cue from the report. you had rush limbaugh, glenn beck saying something similar, a panel at fox and friends all saying this was a racially moat have aed killing, that this was something of a reverse trayvon

martin and demonstrating the extent to which they don't understand why trayvon martin became a national issue. he didn't become a national sish solely because it was a young black teenager being killed by a white man. just two months after trayvon was killed or three months, there was another young black teenager killed by a white man, but that did not become a national issue. here's why. in that case in milwaukee, wisconsin, the police immediately responded. the shooter was arrested, charges were filed and an investigation began. that didn't happen. sanford, florida. george zimmerman wasn't treated by the police as a possible suspect in a murder, and that's what generated the initial activism. it was a push to get the sanford police department to actually treat this as a crime and not just something that happened. >> there's breaking news in this regard. the district attorney in duncan, oklahoma, has just now determined that a hate crime was not committed in the shooing of

christopher lane last friday. congressman, with your roots in oklahoma, what's the vibe in that state? does that is news come as a surprise to you? >> no. >> not a hate crime? >> oklahomans don't jump to a conclusion that something is a hate crime or racially motivated. i find it interesting. you recount some of the perhaps overreaction by some people on the right, but i wish there had been similar criticism of the overreaction by msnbc, by people on the left to the trayvon martin shooting and to claim that there was no investigation of the martin shooting, there was a lot of investigation. it's a very different case when you have someone who claims self-defense. that's much trickier to investigate than when you have somebody that was shot in the back as chris lane was. and as came out of the trial with george zimmerman, there was a ton of excull companitory evidence but you had the agitators saying charge him, charge him who didn't know what

the evidence was. >> congressman -- >> media sensation on the left. >> i'm happy to have that conversation with you right now. >> sure. >> i think the criticism of the process in the trayvon martin case and it went on for a period of weeks where there were no charges brought. if your implication. >> that's because self-defense, it's a different case. >> believe me, i welcome the conversation. if your idea, if your implication is that because in the end george zimmerman was acquitted and that means there should not have been a trial, i don't buy into that. >> that's not what i said. >> i said, if that's your implication. let's be clear that the outrage that was expressed about the zimmerman case initially is that there were no charges in this case, these three men are all locked up and nobody's coming to their defense. >> nobody's coming to their defense. the difficulty with george zimmerman, there was an investigation. you had things such as the witness who saw trayvon martin on top of george zimmerman beating his head against the sidewalk about the police knew

that right away. the media didn't seem to be curious about finding out. they just jumped to a conclusion that was krasally motivated. the fbi found it was not racially motivated. the delay is because there's a very huge difference when there is self-defense involved and the police are well aware of the law on that as opposed to somebody being shot in the back which is a gangland type shooting >> jamel, if respond to what the congressman is saying the comparison to the trayvon martin case. >> i'm not sure there's much utility. either you're credit due louis or you're not. i happen not to be. i don't think the zimmerman trial revealed anything other than the prosecution couldn't problem its case and that's it. the only point i want to make something that you can draw a comparison between the lane case and trayvon martin's killing for the simple reason in the killing of martin, there is as actual

miscarriage of procedure. sanford police did not act as we would expect police to do. and that's what drove the activism. in the case of lane's killing, it's very clear happened. the three young men were arrested. there is no one defending the three young men. it is simply not an apples to apples comparison. i think actually to intentionally create the narrative there are young black wan wantonly attacking white people. >> don't give me false accusations against me. >> let him respond. >> the police investigated the george zimmerman situation. the duty of a prosecutor, like you said, when they didn't have a case that they can prove, they're not supposed to charge people. if they don't have a case they can prove, then the obligation of a prosecutor is not to file charges. or to file some lesser charge of something that they felt that

they could prove. but that's the problem. >> let me be clear. >> the evidence showed that there wasn't a case to begin with. but let me. >> gentlemen, i want to ask you both this question. i want to focus forward looking and ask, when should the race of defendants be commented upon in particular by the media? i mean, there are style books on these sort of things. i'll give you an example. can we put this up on the screen? on the issue of how should journalists cover the racial aspects of cases like this? according to the huffington post, the associated press style book directs journalists to avoid mentioning the race of crime suspects unless it is directly relevant to the story. for example, if the crime was was racially moat have aed. we have to use our news judgment on racial references explain the a.p.'s david minutehorn. if we very reason to believe it's appropriate for a story, we would include it.

jamel, this is the st of thing you encounter whether he you write for the daily beast. when should the race of the defendants be part and parcel of a news story? >> i was not accusing anyone of anything. a quick look at the tapes showing the initial interviews of zimmerman demonstrate there was nos actual investigation at the beginning. that said, i think. >> go ahead. >> i think. >> they're out there. >> i think it's important -- i think it's important to mention the race of suspects or a suspect when surrounding -- when it's part of the case, let's say that there was indication there was a hate crime. that one person was using racial slurs or any sort of slurs. i think it's important to know the race. i think that it might be the case that is somebody like the trayvon martin shooting was -- there is a mountain of activism,

lots of historical things and lots of complicated things happening in that case that made mentioning the race important. >> congressman, there's a tragic case of an 88-year-old world war ii vet. he fought at okinawa in spokane. and beaten by two individuals. now, i see some news reports that identify these individuals even though as far as i know, this is not a hate crime. but they're being reported as two black teens. so i stop and i say okay, as a journalist, is that how i should be reportinging on the story? does their race have any pertinence in something like that? we don't know that it was racially motivated. should it be reported? >> this case, i think it's too early to tell what were the motivations. maybe race was a factor, maybe it was not. in the oklahoma shoot hadding, the individual accused of pulling the trigger had put out, you know, a tweet about hating white people, calling them nasty and so for the. now, maybe that does and maybe it doesn't indicate that in

picking a random target he would have avoided the black person. but i don't know that. so what we have to recognize, michael, is in addition to the individual case we have a society problem. we have a problem of culture in different parts of the country, part of it is in parts of the black community with disproportionate committing of criming. there's a culture issue involved that needs to be addressed. i would like to see leaders of all communities, of all races engage in addressing this. to try to figure out and address the behavior problems and how it relates to culture. not race, but culture. >> that's been knocked out of the headlines this week. there's been conversation about how three bored teens get access to firearms and commit a crime of this magnitude. at a white house briefing this week, ed henry brought up the christopher lane case. misstated the fact all three

suspects were black. only two are. >> right. the two accused of murder. >> do you have any reaction to the christopher lane case? >> i'm not familiar with it. >> in oklahoma this 22-year-old australian, 22 or 23, i've seen different reports. baseball player came from australia, was targeted apparently by three african-american young men who the australian was out on a jog and these young men apparently told the police they were bored and they thought it would be fun to kill him. any reaction to that? >> well, just that this sounds like a pretty tragic case. i wouldn't want to get ahead of the legal process here. >> why hasn't he spoken out on this? in this case? there was one in the trayvon martin case, he spoke out extensively on that one. >> there are some people in the room that wouldn't agree that he spoke out extensively on that. >> that's the equivalency in introducing the subject matter where there's this clamoring from the right for people to say where's the president now?

he spoke out about trayvon martin. why isn't he speaking out about the baseball player in oklahoma? does the president have an obligation to speak in a case like this? >> i think after the investigation is finished and maybe the trial is over president obama will speak that he wants to. i don't think he needs to because i'm not necessarily sure this is indicative or representative, you know, echoing other racial -- complicated racial things in the united states. >> congressman, just 30 seconds left. you give us the final word on your perspective on that. >> the president's obligation should be to be even handed. you see, there's a big part of the obama agenda that goes with what's known as the theory of desperate impact. with people thinking they need advantages and getting loans and so forth. he's trying to play into the theme of that. it's not something often reported, but we're looking at

another subprime mortgage disaster because of some of the policies on this. >> i was just asking if he wants to speak out on this case. >> if he wants to be fair and even handed, yes. >> is that because you see an equivalency of the trayvon martin case? >> no. because it has to be to the trustworthy of the president of people believing that he's even handed. >> thank you, both. when we return, chris matthews will finish with an important change here at "hardball." you're watching the place for politics. smith ] i've found software that intrigues me. it appears it's an agent of good. ♪ [ agent smith ] ge software connects patients to nurses to the right machines while dramatically reducing waiting time. [ telephone ringing ] now a waiting room is just a room.

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hillary clinton looks strong against the republican field in the key swing state of ohio. let's check the "hardball" score board. according to a new ppp poll, clinton leads chris christie by nine points. clinton 45, christie 36. against jeb bush, clinton's lead in ohio is 15. clinton's lead grows by one against rand paul. her lead is 51-36. the weakest republican in ohio against clinton? that would be the state's governor john kasich. he loses his home state by 18. we'll be right back. [ male announcer ] america's favorite endless shrimp is back!

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we're back. by now you know that starting on monday, "hardball" will be seen exclusively at 7:00 eastern. you need to watch him at 7:00 eastern from now on. he's been telling viewers all week about the change. here he is one last time for a reminder. >> let me finish tonight with this, it's hard to fine political sanity these days, some balanced view of things that also points to what's best in this country, what is not good in this country, and what to do to make things better for the future. on this program "hardball" i've tried to do that. i've tried to support america's interest in the world while realizing the limits on what any good government can do when it comes to our privacy and civil liberties. i've also expressed my belief the most successful way to reduce the number of abortions in this country which is always

a matter of true moral contention is to reduce the number of unplanned pregnancies and put the focus there on the responsibilities of those who are in so many cases the people most responsible for unplanned pregnancies. for unprotected sex. men. i believe the pro-life people should spend more time acting on the takeoff and not just the landing. as much time thinking about the men responsible as they do putting the heat on the woman left responsible. i've tried to be balanced in this matter of stop and frisk respecting the danger of good police work and our desire especially those who live in tough neighborhoods to have police doing their job which includes respecting the people they take the responsibility to protect. we do it a little different here on "hardball," and that's why i want you out there watching when we go exclusively next week to 7:00 eastern. this is important stuff. it's not easy. i need you with me. >> that's "hardball" for now. thanks for being with us and please